Only three ingredients are needed to make this incredibly moist, tender, and flavorful Air Fryer Whole Chicken with crispy skin. Choose your favorite dry rub, give it a light coating of olive oil spray, and in less than an hour you'll enjoy the most mouth watering chicken!
Lightly spray olive oil spray over seasoned chicken.
Place breast side down in air fryer basket and cook for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300°F, turn chicken over so that the breast side if facing up, and continue cooking at the lower temperature for about 20 minutes. Internal temperature of the chicken must reach 165°F. Cooking times will vary based on size of chicken as well as how cold the chicken was when you started the cooking process. Allow to rest for at least 5-10 minutes before slicing to allow juices to distribute throughout meat (you can loosely tent with foil to keep warm).
Notes
Chicken size: I used a rather small 3-pound chicken and it barely fit in my air fryer, but it worked. You can also spatchcock your chicken by cutting down the back bone and flattening the whole chicken out to make it fit.
Cooking techniques:
Breast side down first: Just like when I make my roast chicken on the grill or in the oven, I start off by cooking the chicken breast side down. This allows all the juices to pool in the breast area, making that white meat extra moist.
Higher temperature: Unlike other Air Fryer whole chicken recipes out there, I start mine off at a higher temperature. I find this is best in order to get perfectly crispy skin.
Twine: Cooking your chicken with the drumsticks tied together will make the entire chicken more moist but may increase the cooking time. My chicken came tied together with twine and I left it in place while it air fried.
Cooking times will vary: Depending on the size of the chicken and starting temperature, cooking time will vary and you must check the doneness with an accurate thermometer.